Teachers, students expelled: No permanent address for 41-year-old school

Due to non-payment of rent, owner got the premises vacated by force

QUETTA: Despite tall claims of increasing funds for education in Balochistan, students and teachers were expelled from a government school in the provincial capital due to non-payment of rent.

Government Girls Primary School, which was established 41 years ago in Killi Shahnawaz Sariab area, has not been provided a permanent building and has been shifted 15 times from one place to another during the period of its existence.

According to sources, the owner of the school building got the premises vacated by force for not receiving rent.

Nearly a year ago, Adviser to CM Balochistan on Education Sardar Raza Barech and secretary education had announced Rs2.7 million grant for the school, but the fund is yet to be released.

“Children are forced to study on a plain ground without any roof due to failure of the government to provide funds,” Master Abdul Qayyum, a teacher of the school, told The Express Tribune.

“For the last three years, we are running the school with just two rooms,” he added.  The teacher went on to say, “For the last 41 years we have been shifted to different buildings 15 times but still we don’t have the government owned premises.”

Mostly students leave their studies due to lack of resources, he explained, but now owner of the building expelled teachers and students while the future of the 500 students is at stake.

District Education Officer Muteebullah Afridi said that he knows the issue of the building. “Quetta has 44 government schools on rent in private buildings. We have paid some schools’ rent but some have gone unpaid.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2015.